The present disclosure relates generally to medical devices and, more particularly, to systems and methods for monitoring autoregulation of a patient.
This section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of art that may be related to various aspects of the present disclosure, which are described and/or claimed below. This discussion is believed to be helpful in providing the reader with background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the present disclosure. Accordingly, it should be understood that these statements are to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art.
In the field of medicine, medical professionals often desire to monitor certain physiological parameters of their patients. In some cases, clinicians may wish to monitor a patient's autoregulation. Autoregulation is a physiological process that attempts to maintain an optimal cerebral blood flow to supply appropriate levels of oxygen and nutrients to the brain. During autoregulation, cerebral arterioles dilate or constrict to maintain optimal blood flow. For example, as cerebral pressure decreases, cerebral arterioles dilate in an attempt to maintain blood flow. As cerebral pressure increases, cerebral arterioles constrict to reduce the blood flow that could cause injury to the brain. If the patient's autoregulation process is not functioning properly, the patient may experience inappropriate cerebral blood flow, which may have negative effects on the patient's health. In particular, a drop in cerebral blood flow may cause ischemia, which may result in tissue damage or death of brain cells. An increase in cerebral blood flow may cause hyperminia, which may result in swelling of the brain or edema.
Some existing systems for monitoring autoregulation may determine a patient's autoregulation status based on various physiological signals. For example, some existing systems may determine if the patient's autoregulation process is intact (e.g., functioning properly), impaired (e.g., not functioning properly), and/or transitioning from intact to impaired. Such physiological values may be subject to various sources of error, such as noise caused by emotions, operator error, poor quality measurements, drugs, or other anomalies. However, existing systems for monitoring autoregulation may not reduce the various sources of error when utilizing the measured physiological values to determine the patient's autoregulation status. Accordingly, existing systems may not accurately determine if a patient's autoregulation status is functioning properly or may not determine if the patient's autoregulation is approaching impaired function.